Hyposalinity For Killing Ich

[old_salt]

Have been reading this forum for weeks and really appreciate all the helpful information be offered. I have lost several nice fish over the past few weeks to what I believe was Ich. I know most if not all were caused by mistakes I was making in how much I was feeding my fish and causing them stress by leaving the lights on too long in my DT. I have had several Tangs and Angel Fish die recently because of this parasite. The biggest mistake I made was accidentally unplugging the heater on my tank and not realizing the temperature had dropped 8 to 10 degrees overnight. I believe this caused most of the fish I had in my DT to succumb to Ich. I tried treating them with Ich Attack, but this didn't seem to help at all. Since this loss, I set up a QT (29 Gallons) and also a small Hospital Tank (12 Gallons). I noticed that a new Tomato Clown and Coral Beauty Angel that I had in my QT were starting to get Ich so I took them out and gave them a dip in Formalin (2 drops in a gallon of water from taken from the QT) and returned them to the QT. The Ich dropped off both fish, but both died the next day. I now have to Blue Hippo Tangs in my HT and have just noticed they are covered in Ich. I have added 24 drops of Formalin to this tank and removed the charcoal filter. The Specific Gravity in this tank is at 1.017 and I want to drop it down to 1.009, but not sure over how fast I should make this change. Seems every time I do something too fast I end up killing a fish. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[hogcr8]

I am not an expert but I will share a recent lesson learned about Hypo. I have a long nose butterfly that showed signs of ICH (got real bad). I placed it in a QT and started using copper to treat him, however since I am not the best at measuring and the copper test kit showed that there was too much copper I decided to start Hypo and stop using the copper. I have been lowering the sal. about 2 1/1000 water change and am now at 1.013. Here's where I almost screwed up and probably why I have had no luck with fish in my QT. I test the water in my DT all the time. For some reason I don't know why I didn't test the water in my QT (BIG MISTAKE) like I said that is probably why I have had no luck with it. The Butterfly stopped eating but it seemed the ICH was starting to drop off. Well come to find out the ICH was dropping off but caused a SERIOUS Ammonia spike in the tank. I did a complete water change using water from my DT and RODI water to match the Sal. the fish was in. Once I did that more ICH started dropping off and he is now eating the food faster than I can put it in. I have dropped from 1.022 to 1.013 over a period of 4 days. I don't know if this is too quick but it seems to be working for me. Good luck and I hope this helps. TEST YOUR WATER EVERYDAY, from here on out I guarentee I will...........

 

[old_salt]

I'm wondering if I might have made a mistake in putting these 2 Tangs in the Small Hospital Tank instead of my larger QT. Right now they won't eat and they are scared silly. I would hate to lose these two fish by yet another mistake on my part. The folks at the LFS are very helpful but seems I still can't keep these fish from getting Ich. If the Ich does drop off them over the next 24 hours, should I try moving them to the larger tank since it has more places to hide? There are no other fish in the QT tank at this time, but there were two sick fish there that just died this past weekend. I do have a cleaner shrimp in the larger tank.

 

[beth]

Old Salt, don't use formalin to threat ich. Hyposalinity is the best way to deal with this problem. Please take a look at the information in the FAQ Thread located at the top of this forum. Does your tank have live rock? Corals?
And, welcome to Saltwaterfish.com.

 

[old_salt]

I have no live corals or live rock in my Hospital tank, only 2 very scared non-eating Blue Hippo Tangs (medium sized) with a lot fewer spots on them than they had this morning. I have dropped the salinity slightly and will drop it further tomorrow. The LFS owner suggested the Formalin to treat Ich along with Hyposalinity and cranking the temperature up to 82 degrees. FWIW, every fish I've tried using Formalin on has died. The spots go away, but a day or so later the fish start having trouble breathing, stop eating and then they die. I've tried the Hyposalinity method before on another Blue Hippo and it seemed like it was working okay for awhile, but then after few days I found this fish laying on its side with it fins and tail all tore up and having a very hard time breathing. I moved it to the Hospital Tank, added some Formalin, next day the fish was dead.
The spots seem to be just about gone from the two I currently have in the Hospital Tank, should I use Hyposalinity only? Or try that Ich Attack medicine again?
BTW, I added some PVC pipe to the hospital tank and the fish seem to be settling down a little now that they have a decent place to hide. I just hope they don't starve to death before I can get the Ich under control.
Thanks again!

 

[beth]

Don't mess with the temp, that will only stress fish, and won't kill ich. Cover 3 sides of the tank, leaving only the front viewable. Also, is your bottom tank dark? Add a couple of cups of sand from your display in to your QT to boost the biofilter.
What are you using to measure salinity? Make sure you have good circulation throughout the tank.

 

[old_salt]

Okay, I have covered both sides and only the front is open for viewing. One of the Tangs has already taken to using the PVC for cover and the other is hiding inside one of those ornamental vases with the cutouts (I was told this was saltwater safe where I buy most of my fish and supplies). I tried to coax the one inside the vase out but he just looks at me. He made one mad dash out about the aquarium and then back to his hideout. As far as I can tell, neither fish is eating and hasn't since last Friday. I added some saltwater plants today, hoping they might at least nibble on this.
I was going to put some sand from one of my display tanks but won't the Formalin kill the good microorganisms in this sand? The aquarium I am using for my Hospital Tank is one of those Nano tanks that has the built in filter system with those bio balls. I had taken one of the filters from another tank to seed these balls about two weeks ago and right now everything is reading okay.
I am using one of the plastic hydrometers that was calibrated at my LFS. I have checked it several times and each time it has been very accurate. I know I should buy a refractometer but not sure which one to buy. I've seen them on e-bay for under $50, but not sure if they would be any better than what I'm currently using. Any recommendations on which one to get? Thanks again for all your help.